trying to embarrass him in the sense that we know what is been going on recently with our longtime ally in the gulf the saudi kingdom has not been entirely on the up and up in the eyes of the american people or of congress so the alleged killing of his shoji is still fresh here people want accountability for it and they also don't appreciate us relation this except being used against civilians in yemen and there's been a very strong statement one of the strongest we've seen and the most bipartisan in the recent era of polarization against any further involvement in that conflict so let's hope that this might just be a trial balloon that the administration is floating here knowing how sensitive things are in all directions and in particular now because of the potential conflict with iran would anyone have been pressuring the administration into doing

this. well absolutely and we're seeing a pattern of this. basically we've got crown prince's our friends in saudi arabian u.a.e. who have a very strong relationship with this illustration and in particular the president and his son in law we've got a kinship you might even say among these gentlemen and they've been very persuasive in a completely unrelated example recently which is basically turning around almost 10 years of u.s. policy on libya when the 2 crown prince is called up donald trump and said hey why don't you support the other side want you support the militia leader general hoft are against the u.n. backed nato backed backed and previously american backed government of prime minister seraph and out of the blue we saw we heard after the taken place that president trump called up half star and said you're a good man we support you your freedom fighter and we're going to stand with you

and that undercut his secretary of state and the prior one not to mention other senior administration officials and again enraged capitol hill this really is a president and a kind of with a cabal of like minded governments and rulers that is getting in the way of u.s. national security interests good to see you again jeff many thanks to you for being with us just a scene where president donald trump says he's meeting pentagon officials to discuss tensions with iran the u.s. as already sent extra warships and fighter jets to the region over the past few weeks saying that it's facing unspecified threats from tehran the acting defense secretary downplayed the possibility of war with iran but strongly defended the military buildup in the gulf. we want to risk of rain just so. i think those are fair comments you know our job is to trance this is

not about we have a mission it's just freedom of navigation. counterterrorism serious or rather. the security of israel jordan iran's supreme leader ayatollah ali harmony has criticised his own country's leadership over the nuclear deal. i didn't have much belief in the way the way was realized and implemented you know we have said this to the people responsible for this the president and the revered foreign minister and others many times we gave them reminders on many issues. in libya warplanes have bombed the offices of a breakaway faction of one of the country's 2 competing governments no one was hurt in the attack the building is used by members of the to brook based house of representatives who moved to tripoli soon after the war khalifa haftar began his attack on the capital in april libya remains divided following the overthrow of

moammar gadhafi in 2011 the united nations backs the tripoli based government of national. this. still to come on the program a trip to southern china by president xi sparked speculation of a new front in the trade with the u.s. . to find out why a british man is taking police to court over facial recognition technology. india's captain tells us who he thinks are the team to beat at the cricket world cup. wiki leaks founder julian assange is facing new charges in the u.s. bringing the total now to 18 the u.s. justice department is accusing him of publishing the names of classified sources of conspiring with former army intelligence analyst chelsea manning to obtain

classified information in 2010 wiki leaks published thousands of secret diplomatic cables from the state department swedish prosecutors a car to try to extradite a song from the u.k. to face a rape charge more now from other serious highly joe castro in washington. the federal indictment of juliana songe cover a sweeping 18 charges 70 of them are counts that he violated the espionage act and there's an additional hacking charge and altogether if convicted back to back they carry a maximum sentence of 175 years in prison now the indictment alleges that assad in 2010 worked with former intelligence analyst chelsea manning to unlawfully obtain classified information and then publish it on wiki leaks it says that these documents were hundreds of thousands of pages of war logs and diplomatic papers that revealed the names of classified sources inside iraq and afghanistan these

were people who were helping u.s. military in their efforts there and their lives were put at risk because of this disclosure the indictment also says that this endangered the national security of the united states now song is currently in a jail cell in london where he's serving a 50 week sentence for having skipped bail he was arrested in april after being injected from the ecuadorian embassy if you recall that's where he had been for almost 7 years hiding from authorities who had wanted to prosecute him for rape in sweden now that he's no longer under diplomatic protection under ecuador those allegations of rape have been reopened in sweden coupled with this u.s. counts of violating the espionage act now it's a question of which country gets to go after him 1st once he's released from jail in london the u.s.

has already moved toward extradition china's president xi jinping this visit to a rare earth minerals processing plant is being seen as a possible new front in the trade war with the u.s. spent some actual elements used in the manufacture of the variety of products including small. phones electric car engines and even fighter jets china process as much as 70 percent of the world's supply last year any tariff or changes to the supply chain could impact many u.s. companies particularly apple and that gives paging leverage during trade negotiations our china correspondent a brown reports from beijing it is not what president xi jinping is saying right now that's interesting it's what he's been doing for the past few days he's been touring central china and earlier this week he visited junk c. province to go to a rare earths mind now china at the moment controls about 90 percent of the world's supply of rare earths one of the country's exports to the united states but so far

the trumpet ministration has not been slapping tariffs on rare earths as it has been on just about everything else that china exports to the united states so this visit was filled with powerful symbolism now last week one state controlled newspaper suggested that perhaps it was time for china to start reducing rare earth exports to the united states as one way of hurting the trumpet ministration the other message that been coming out from president xi jinping this week and it's a message that's been loud and clear is that it's time for china to become self-reliant when it comes to technology he feels that china has been left to vulnerable too dependent on what the united states makes things like microchips and that's why he is determined to press ahead with his made in china 2025 policy this is his signature economic policy that the trumpet ministration is desperate to

dismantle but china regards that as one of its core interests and it's one concession it's simply not prepared to make. robert scott is a senior international economist with the economic policy institute he joins us now live on skype via from washington good to have you with us rob us just how you wrap a rare earth minerals and one of the useful well actually the not very rare there are as common as dirt but refining them is that is that difficult step the u.s. in fact reduces about 10 percent of the rare earth or an until about 020 years ago the u.s. wasn't back the largest producer in the world of these these metals the problem is it's very expensive and very dirty and eventually the u.s. mine was shut down and all of those all the refining shifted to china and it's used to complete her earlier to right of products everything from wind mills to.

additives used to help refine oil so they're very ubiquitous but they're used in very tiny quantities to help accelerate this chemical process exists and to china controls what 70 to 80 percent of global production of these minerals what happens if china cuts off access to them. so you would actually have a hard time cutting off access to these minerals for 2 reasons one. the united states only consumes less than 4 percent of what china exports of these products directly. second china tried to cut off access into japan japan is access to reverse about 9 years ago and that effort failed for 2 reasons world supplies and just stood there stockpiles and so on and also illegal or or producers in china actually got around the export restrictions

a man should get those products to japan anyway so it's a leaky ship and china would have a hard time in forcing these kind of restrictions to compete in the short term it could help provide leverage in trade negotiations couldn't it. it certainly couldn't begin to the amount of leverage depends on how much pain china is willing actually to. to impose on itself if china is actually going to be effective at. imposing restrictions on terrorists are probably going to have to reduce exports cars like magnets and batteries used. these minerals because u.s. does not currently produce many products that can saying that most of that production shifted broad and china would probably have to ship to cut exports of these parts to the world so that would cut into shiners exports very dramatically that would

hurt china's economy probably more than it would hurt the united states to talk to mr scott rather many thanks indeed yes thank you u.s. secretary of state mike pump ayos accuse the head of the chinese tech giant way of lying about the company's ties the beijing government washington place while away on a trade blacklist last week effectively banning u.s. firms from doing business with the company and escalating a trade war between the world's 2 biggest economies beijing says the u.s. needs to correct its actions if it wants to continue trade negotiations they found only only you know i don't watch yet the u.s. is employing thight power to suppress chinese companies seriously undermines mobile corp and it also poses a serious threat to the global industry china and china is resolutely against this if the u.s. wants to continue to talk it should show sincerity and correct its mistaken actions civil aviation regulators from around the world have failed to make

a decision on when boeing the 737 max aircraft can return to service the u.s. aviation agency says the says approval for the jets to fly in the united sates could come as early as late june but the f.a.a. says there's still no firm time. table $346.00 people were killed when 2 max aircraft crashed within months of each other. saudi crown prince mohammed bin solomon has spent the deputy head of sudan's transitional military council who's visiting saudi arabia to discuss cooperation between the 2 countries meanwhile doctors engineers and artists in sudan have marched towards a sit in near military headquarters in khartoum demanding a transition to a civilian government. military council says it will hand power to a democratically elected government as soon as possible but the opposition alliance says the military is insisting on directing the transition and of having

a majority on the council. now we're marching to have voices can be heard and to inform the people that we are all on strike no matter what the circumstances we started a strong revolution and will continue with the same strength at all for under the establishment of a civil state. this march which is organized by the sudanese professionals association with so we could all participate and stress that we will go on a political strike and civil disobedience to support the position held by the mass sudanese people and the opposition groups negotiating in the name of the sudanese people the dutch foreign minister is calling for an international tribunal to be established to investigate i saw it would investigate claims that the armed group committed genocide during its so-called caliphate across syria and iraq our diplomatic editor james bays reports from the un. the un called the crimes

committed by both syria and iraq a genocide now there are calls for a new international tribunals to prosecute the individuals who ordered and committed those crimes it comes from the foreign minister of the netherlands. i'm here because i'm confidence that there should be an international tribunal because the skill of sea atrocities committed by i.c.l. is such that it may be me amounts to genocide and this just suffice an international tribunal he's reflecting called by human rights activists including the z.d. campaigner nadia murat she spoke to our jazeera shortly after she received the nobel peace prize and here for us thank you and then we see that the rights of easy to people have not been given to them but we have not stopped our efforts we are doing it tireless work yeah that and we hope that very

soon we will be able to see justice taking its place the country calling for the new tribunals the netherlands is the home of the international criminal court in the hague but neither of the countries where i sall set up its caliphate it's syria or iraq are signatories to the treaty that governs the court the security council does have the power to create completely new tribunals human rights watch is among those who want them to do so but their un director says there mustn't be selective justice or this is needed desperately but let's make it broader and let's make sure that all kinds of perpetrators are looked at because there are there there is more to this conflict then i saw we all know that various parts of the u.n. already investigating possible war crimes in syria and iraq setting up a tribunals to prosecute those crimes will require the security council to give

agreement a number of permanent members are likely to have misgivings the u.s. for example will be concerned that its own military could be prosecuted for what it bombed raca and other eisel areas and russia in the past. subjected to any accountability mechanism for syria james pays out his era at the united nations we're going to weather update next here on the news then. heavy fighting in syria is provinces rebels hit back at government forces who are trying to capture their last stronghold. that's want to lift a hunting ban on its growing elephant population. and in sports these 2 the cities try this is sending a message ahead of the monaco grand prix. to

weather sponsored by cattle and. hello we've got the spring showers lighting up across southern parts of china at the moment a fair amount of cloud just showing up here some thunder heads over towards hong kong that's going to just notice where a little further north with some creasing the humid weather spilling him from the south china sea as we go from friday into saturday night will drive its way further north with some really heavy rain coming in for sas day shanghai ses and cloud and right 29 celsius a few showers still in place there the hong kong perhaps not quite as widespread or as lengthy at this stage quite a rash of showers meanwhile across southeast asia as usual some showers them to the philippines into borneo easing over towards us whether they're to the mill a peninsula and it looks rather stay here looks rather wet into thailand across a good part of indo china $36.00 the top temperatures there for bangkok that line

of showers extends across the adamancy they make a bargain seeing some wet weather but right now started to push its way up towards southern parts of me and now the monsoon course is starting to to set in a little bit of sherry writes was on the cards into the far south of india sri lanka as well further north it is largely dry 44 or even higher as we go on through the next couple of days. the weather. and weighs in 2012 al-jazeera traveled to iraq people here are definitely scared to speak on camera they're saying that if they talk to us they think they'll be arrested down the line to take the pulse of a country ravaged under us occupation some of these graves are completely destroyed it's one of the most holy and sacred sites in all of iraq could turn into a battleground between the mighty army and the americans rewind returns to iraq after the americans on al-jazeera.

after decades of being programmed with instructions data hungry computers can now learn on their own identifying patterns and predicting human behavior artificial intelligence can monitor our movement. and decide on our future the big picture codes of the world according to ai and exposes the bias inside the machine coming soon on al-jazeera. again adrian for good here in doha with the news hour from up 0 the top stories this hour india's prime minister under modi is all set for another 5 year term his

ruling b j p party is on course to increase its majority of parliament voting told supporters if you tally that he's got a mandate to build a new india. a trumpet ministration is being accused of trying to bypass a congressional ban on weapon sales to saudi arabia there's concern that u.s. secretary of state mike can pay out other senior aides may use a loophole that allows the president to approve a sale without the approval of congress. and wiki leaks founder julian assange is facing a team charges in the u.s. in 2010 the website published thousands of secret diplomatic cables from the state . space x. is hoping to create a new world record by launching as many as 60 satellites these are pictures from less than a minute ago of the fall can mine a spacecraft looks just blasted off the mission's part of a plan to increase the reach of the company's wireless service capabilities. if

satellite weighs around 230 kilograms space-x. postponed the launch twice last week due to poor weather conditions or. a buddhist monk accused of inciting violence against muslims in 2014 has been released from prison in sri lanka the head of the buddhist power force was given a presidential pardon while serving a 6 year sentence it comes just a week after a muslim owned buildings were attacked in apparent reprisal for the easter sunday bombings last month but al flanders reports from colombo i've supporters of gallagher doubt binyomin solder tiro waited eagerly outside the valley could a prison in colombo a pardon signed by president mighty palace city say no on wednesday night wiped clean his 6 year sentence for contempt of court but on thursday security concerns forced him to leave through would be a gate only to reappear at this temple in look ma gumma

a short while later. his 1st stop was to prey. on a sort of pedo has attracted controversy since he founded a nationalist buddhist organization in 2012 called the. meaning buddhist power force. responding to a rise in nationalism after the end of sri lanka's civil war he began his campaign to protect what he called a single a buddhist identity. has been accused of hate campaigns against the muslim community the theater himself was accused of instigating anti muslim riots in 2014 a charge he denies nana's out of pedro was jailed on contempt of court charges for insulting the judiciary in 2016 during a case into the disappearance of a journalist where military personnel were being investigated you know people they are targeting you know there's nothing they didn't but destroyed my character they

killed me without actually. me but the truth. we have and always will be committed and. there have been attacks against muslims on homes and businesses in recent weeks after the easter sunday bombings that targeted churches and hotels that killed more than 250 people so some are questioning the timing of his release genotypic devised i began by the president is belittling the judicial system by his action and proving that the claims made by the buddhist priest against judicial offices and the attorney general's department true on thursday the monk urged his supporters to stay calm during these tense times the controversial buddhist priest says after years of being vilified he's now been vindicated but some. would have to justify his decision to grant. eventually.

in northwestern syria rebels have launched a counterattack against pro-government forces fighting has been intensifying in hama province is that's despite a turkish russian back broken. reports. the rebels have beat back gains by the syrian army and its allies in the countryside of hama province in northwest syria the town of far back under opposition control the government says it will recapture it but the loss is a strategic and symbolic setback. for the army's 1st win since launching an offensive almost a month ago since then gains on the ground have been limited and has been facing stiff resistance. an armed group many in the international community believe is linked to al qaida is in control of this region after forcing syrian

rebels backed by turkey to leave earlier this year those rebels are back on the front lines they are cooperating in what they are calling a battle for survival but it is also an indication that turkey too has joined the fight. when you take a look at the position of turkey in the. clashes which has spiked that. turkey is very dedicated to its position that if the diplomacy is not working in the. cold feet it's feet. inside the. church. more than $3500000.00 extra refugees to discard. turkey and russia work together in syria and sponsor a cease fire in the area but the offensive is testing their relationship at a time of intensifying dialogue between turkey and the united states the area of

hostilities includes. belt of territory that stretches from the northern countryside. provinces reaching the southern edges of the province as well as rebel controlled villages west of aleppo city the pro-democracy side wants to clear those areas from rebels in order to open trade and protect. cities under its control but progress has been made so far advancing on the ground is proving to be difficult the offensive however has depopulated villages and created a humanitarian crisis. the almost nonstop airstrikes by syrian. opposition controlled villages intensified since the rebel advance at least $200.00 civilians have been killed turkey. have so far survived their relationship extends beyond syria but this is where they are bargaining and strengthening their negotiating hand.

social democratic party is the big winner of the european elections in the netherlands according to exit polls europeans are voting over the next 3 days to elect 750 parliamentarians the outcome in the netherlands will reassure established parties. from the far right labor easily beaten upstart populist group prime minister. came in 2nd at the polls closed in the u.k. and european parliamentary elections a campaign group says that hundreds of citizens trying to vote the way due to administrative mistakes had been due to leave the e.u. by the end of march but parliament was unable to agree on a withdrawal bill the lead to a surge in support of the briggs's at the expense of the ruling conservatives.

french far right leader marine le pen has been ordered to repay the european parliament more than $330000.00 in misused pharms after her appeal to the e.u.'s top court was rejected the former m.e.p. will now have to pay back the money she claimed for a parliamentary assistant who is based in paris the plan is found to take the case to the european court of human rights. automatic facial recognition technology uses our unique facial dimensions to let us access bank accounts go cashless in holiday resorts and to use or summated border controls but it could also track us and invade our privacy al-jazeera paul brennan reports now on the u.k.'s 1st legal challenge against the technology. security or surveillance cameras have become a silent ubiquitous feature of cities across the world residents seem almost oblivious to the routine monitoring of their daily lives. and bridges was irritated the 1st time he realized the police automatic facial recognition vehicle that

scanned his features in a shopping center but the 2nd time it happened was at a peaceful and arms trade protest and on that occasion the van was parked opposite the crowd i felt it was better to intimidate people into them from using their right to peaceful protest so ed has taken south wales police to court in the 1st u.k. challenge to the use of a f r i mean essentially what you have is a situation where technology is running. to catch up here far biometrics is increasingly used for things like keyless buildings and cashless leisure resorts but civil liberties groups are most concerned by its use in public spaces to scam more abiding citizens as they walk past the camera it takes a really sensitive biometric data from them without their knowledge or their consent is really akin to them walking down the high street and the police forcibly taking their fingerprint or their d. and

a automatic facial recognition has dramatically improved thanks to rapid advances in a computer technology known as d. planet the accuracy is still variable but the 2017 champions league final the system produced 92 percent of false positives and even if accuracy can be improved the still the other questions of governance of purpose and the wider question of exactly when protection of the public tips over into intrusion and oppression. china has mass surveillance of its citizens including the use of facial recognition is well known in 2017 australia authorized police and some private companies to use and access a controversial new system but this month the us city of san francisco banned since your thirty's from deploying the technology i could demick doctor on the hints has examined digital citizenship and surveillance our data trails make us transparency says the balance of power is shifting we have become very transparent on the other

hand the process by which we are assessed also through our data and not very transparent and in that sense then we can see there is a reversal in empowerment and power shifts from the citizen to the state al-jazeera approached the company and e.c. and other providers but none responded to interview requests in a statement london's metropolitan police said it's a pilot scheme it now and it and the results are being assessed judgement in at bridges legal challenge is expected to be handed down in the autumn paul brennan al jazeera. in nicaragua the opposition has called a general strike they want political prisoners released human rights activists say that around 800 people have been arrested since anti-government protests began last year al-jazeera has been while raffaello reports. the streets are empty across much of the nicaraguan capital many businesses have closed their doors for the day in an act of civil disobedience this is now the 5th national strike to take place since

a political crisis group the country more than a year ago. the strike was organized in part as a response to the killing of any more u.s. citizen held by the nicaraguan government as a political prisoner his shooting by prison guard was the subject of a recent meeting at the organization of american states is simply that the. it is imperative that violations of human rights people to an end and nicaraguan citizens regain all of their political rights and privileges also that all political prisoners be released it is a maximum priority that a clear and forthcoming investigation be launched into the death of eddie money says. in the nicaraguan capital small protests have taken place in recent days calling on the government to release political prisoners. but it remains illegal to demonstrate publicly against the government of daniel ortega instead those in the political opposition are calling for alternative forms of

dissent. or suspect you know that this national strike is a legitimate form of peaceful and civic protest and as a way for us to show our support and so.